the unshakable mountains we blew to pieces
by CamsthiSky
Summary: "What had happened tonight had shaken them all to the core. It was a blow straight to the heart. It worked so well. They hadn't seen it coming. Even Dick hadn't seen it coming, and Tim knew from experience that Dick prepared for the worst." Missing scenes from S2 ep 9: Darkest


_"Can you make it to shore with Nightwing?"_

 _"Yeah, I've got him."_

* * *

"No heartbeat!" Conner yelled as he and Mal dropped down next to Nightwing's unconscious form. "He needs CPR right now!"

Mal cursed under his breath and started pushing down on Dick's chest. Conner handled the rescue breaths. They were at it for almost a minute before Dick suddenly jackknifed, water spilling from his mouth. Conner and Mal sprung back to give the younger hero space as he expelled the water from his lungs, hacking and coughing as he tried to breathe.

"Nightwing," Conner breathed, relief touching his voice. "You're okay."

Dick tried to moan, but it turned into another round of coughs. Besides a few cuts and bruises, he looked relatively fine, but that didn't mean that he was.

Mal caught his gaze. "What should we do?"

Shaking his head, Conner let out a shaky breath. There were only a few options here, even less with the remains of Mount Justice right next to them and authorities on their way. "We need to get him out of here, first. Did you call for backup?"

Mal nodded. "The moment I saw the mountain explode. We're stretched thin, though, so only the Flash and Green Arrow responded."

"Anyone from the team?"

"Not that I know of. I only called the Watchtower, so—Hey!" Mal called out, as Nightwing groggily attempted to push himself up. Mal put a hand to Nightwing's chest, forcing him to lie back on the sand.

Honestly, Conner wasn't surprised. He'd had known Dick for over five years now, and his resilience still impressed him. Nightwing wasn't even close to being invulnerable, but every time life threw him down—figuratively or literally—Nightwing got back up again with barely any regard to his own well-being.

Well, it wasn't going to fly this time. Conner put his own hand to Nightwing's chest. "Dick, stay down. You're hurt," Conner told him. "The Flash is going to be here soon."

Nightwing, who didn't look all that coherent, just moaned again, his head tossing from side to side as his breath rattled in his lungs. All in all, it wasn't looking good. They really needed to get him out of here before he developed a chest infection. Or worse.

A gust of wind blew by them, and when Conner looked up, the Flash was standing there, his face grim as he stared at what remained of the mountain.

"What happened?" the Flash asked, looking towards the two still sitting by Nightwing. "Is everyone okay?"

Mal looked at Conner, suddenly looking very nervous.

"It was Aqualad," Conner growled. "He and a bunch of his new friends decided to blow up the mountain. I was unconscious for most of it, but I know Nightwing and Sphere got us out before it exploded."

"Was there anyone else with you two?" Barry asked.

Conner shook his head. "Beast Boy was supposed to be in the Cave, too, but I don't hear anybody else's heartbeat close by, and Nightwing would have gone back for him if he'd known Gar was still in there."

"So, he's either dead or they captured him," Mal whispered.

"I'll go look for him," Barry said quietly. "If he's here, dead or alive, I'll find him. If he's not, then there isn't anything we can do for him right now."

"What should we do with Nightwing?" Conner asked, looking over his friend. His breathing was still harsh and uneven, and Conner didn't like listening to it. The only plus side was that he was breathing at all. "It's not like we can just bring him to a hospital, and the Zeta tube was blown up with the mountain."

Barry sighed, looking indecisive. "Beast Boy's a priority, but from the looks of Nightwing, he needs medical attention. If we can get him to the Watchtower, he'll be okay."

Conner frowned. "I can carry him to the nearest Zeta tube. You look for Beast Boy."

The Flash nodded and zipped off, searching the debris for Beast Boy. Conner turned to Mal, who looked unsure of what to do.

"Stay here with the Flash," Conner told him as he gathered Nightwing up in his arms. Other than a slight hitch in his breath, Dick barely reacted. "If he finds Gar, and Gar's hurt, he'll need your help."

"And if he isn't?"

Conner grimaced. "Let's just hope he's alive or missing."

Mal sighed, running a hand over his head. "Right. Just…take care of Nightwing."

"Don't worry," Conner said. "I've got him."

* * *

Tim wasn't asleep when the call came in, but he was pretty darn close to it.

He and Batgirl had done a light patrol—just a sweep of the city before calling it a night. With Dick at Mount Justice finishing up a few things, both he and Barbara had decided to take it easy.

Not to mention, Tim had a bad feeling, and after sharing it with Barbara, they both agreed that it was for the best that they laid low. After a while, especially living with the big bad Bat, Tim had learned to trust his gut when it came to these types of things.

Just as Tim was about to drift off, there was a knock on his bedroom door—well, the bedroom he used when he slept at the Manor, which was a lot more often than not lately. Tim blinked awake, and he stared at his door, the bad feeling in his gut intensifying.

"Master Timothy?" Alfred called when Tim took a moment too long to respond.

"Come in, Alfred," Tim said, sitting up and pushing back the covers when Alfred opened the door. He didn't like the grave look on the butler's face. Tim swallowed past the lump in his throat. "What happened?"

"I'm afraid there was an incident," Alfred said, his expression the only thing betraying his distress. "According to Mr. Kent, there was an explosion. Mount Justice is no longer there."

No longer there. It was gone?

"Wait _what?"_ Tim cried, his limbs feeling like dead weight as he climbed out of bed. His mind was reeling. Mount Justice was gone. And on top of that, hadn't _Nightwing_ been at Mount Justice? Tim felt sick, but made sure to meet Alfred's heavy eyes. "Is Dick okay?"

Instead of answering, Alfred just held out the Manor's main phone. "If it suits you, sir, Mr. Kent is still on the line. He wishes to speak with you, and maybe Mr. Kent can reassure you of Master Dick's well-being."

Tim took the phone, shaking hands slowly raising it to his ear. "Hello?" he asked.

 _"Tim,"_ Conner said through a sigh of relief. _"Thank goodness. When you didn't answer the usual way I thought-"_

"I'm okay," Tim cut in. It was a bit early, not even midnight yet, but Tim's communicator was down in the BatCave, and his phone was on the other side of the room charging. Conner had to have been freaking out. "What about Dick? Is he alright?"

 _"He's stable. There's more to it than that, but over the phone probably isn't the best way to talk about any of this. You should get to the Watchtower."_

Tim nodded, even though Conner couldn't see him. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

When Tim hung up the phone and passed it back to Alfred, the butler raised his eyebrows. "Do you need anything, Master Timothy?"

"Call Barbara," Tim told him, sidestepping Alfred and making towards the door, despite the shakiness in his steps. "See if she can get to the Watchtower asap."

"Very well, Master Timothy," Alfred said. "Send my well wishes to your brother."

* * *

When Tim Zeta'd to the Watchtower, he was a little overwhelmed by the activity. The Atom, Captain Atom, Bumblebee, Mal, Zatanna, Green Arrow, and Black Canary were all gathered, talking, arguing. It was general chaos, and if Batman were there, he would have put a stop to it immediately.

As it was, Batman wasn't there, and the only thing Tim did was meet Black Canary's eyes briefly, watch her tilt her head towards the med bay, and take off down the hallway, leaving the chaos behind him.

When he got to the med bay, there was a lot _less_ chaos, but Tim wasn't sure that was altogether good. Dick was laid up in bed, breathing mask over his face and completely unconscious. Tim didn't know what that meant, but from the looks on M'gann's, Barry's, and Conner's faces, it didn't seem like everything was okay.

Tim swallowed, taking a hesitant step towards his brother. "Is…Is he okay?"

Conner, who had probably heard him coming from the moment his name was announced to the Watchtower, didn't look surprised to see him, but Barry and M'gann both jumped at his voice. Good to know he was getting better at the stealth thing, and if Dick were awake, he'd be ruffling his hair with that goofy smile on his face.

But he wasn't awake, and Tim didn't know what was going on.

"Tim," M'gann said, recovering quickly. "Why are you here?"

"He has a right to be here, M'gann," Conner said, a scowl on his face. "It's not fair to exclude him."

M'gann didn't say anything, though, and the two stared at each other. Tim left them to argue telepathically and approached his brother's bedside, still shaking slightly.

Dick looked horrible. That was Tim's first thought. His second was that Dick would be horrified at awful he looked. Whether he admitted it or not, Dick was kind of a baby about his appearance. He was pale, and there were shadows growing under his eyes. His breath rattled dangerously in his chest, and Tim couldn't help but wince at the sight. He looked like he would break apart at the slightest touch.

Tim even hesitated a moment before resting a trembling hand on Dick's unresponsive one.

"What's wrong with him?" Tim asked quietly.

Barry, the only one in the room paying attention to Tim at the moment, sighed, running a hand through his uncovered hair. "He went too long without oxygen. We're not sure exactly how long, but it was probably more than two minutes."

"So, you're guessing brain damage," Tim guessed, his eyes sweeping over Dick. "Has he woken up?"

"Briefly, but he hasn't been coherent enough to get anything substantial out of him."

"He's got a bump on the back of his head," Conner added. "Probably a concussion, but we don't know how bad it is."

"So what now? Do we just wait for him to wake up again?" Tim asked, looking up to meet everyone's eyes. "And why is he breathing like that?"

"He had water building up in his lungs," M'gann said, placing a comforting hand on Tim's shoulder. "His oxygen levels are still low, and with his concussion, it's hard to say when he'll wake up again."

Tim's shoulders slumped. "You mean _if_ he'll wake up."

M'gann's face was pinched, and Barry looked like he wanted to be sick. Conner, though, just sighed, walking around Dick's bed to stand opposite to Tim and M'gann.

"Look, Tim," Conner started, "I know things don't look good for him, but Dick doesn't give in that easily. And we caught the pulmonary problems before it got too bad."

"He'll probably have pneumonia, though," Barry cut in.

Conner sighed. "The point is, Dick's not going to let this get him down. He'll wake up, and we'll figure this all out together."

Tim nodded and tried not to feel like he was falling apart. "Right."

* * *

"Is everyone accounted for yet?" Barry asked after M'gann took her leave.

Conner knew that M'gann was still reeling over the fact that Gar was missing, and now they were doing a check to see if anyone else was missing, too. As far as Conner knew, it had only been him, Nightwing, and Beast Boy in the Cave, but he'd been unconscious for most of the time, and he didn't even know how Mount Justice had even exploded, let alone who was in it.

They had decided to assume for now that Beast Boy had been taken, like Lagoon Boy had. Just until Nightwing woke up and they could figure out what happened.

"We still haven't heard from Impulse, Blue Beetle, Captain Marvel, Rocket, Wonder Girl, Batgirl, and Red Arrow."

"And Beast Boy's still missing," Barry sighed, running a hand down his face. "This is getting out of control."

Tim was looking at them, his face pinched with concern. He held Dick's hand loosely in his own, but it was obvious his attention was on their conversation. "Does anyone want to tell me what's going on?"

"Beast Boy, Nightwing, Wolf, and I were the only ones supposed to be at the Cave tonight," Conner explained. "But we were attacked. One of the Terror Twins put an inhibitor collar on me, and I ended up passing out. Somehow, Nightwing and the S-Cycle got us out of the Cave before it exploded."

"So you were attacked," Tim said, "and they blew up Mount Justice?"

"Yes." Conner nodded, keeping his expression calm, but inside he was reeling. It shouldn't be this hard to talk about. It was just a mountain. Just a Cave. But it was also _his_ mountain. _His_ Cave. His _home._ "They blew it up."

"They probably used a bomb," Tim speculated. "If it was Aqualad, it wouldn't surprise me if it were the same type he used to blow up the Kroloteans. But you said Beast Boy's missing. He didn't get out with you guys?"

"Not that I could tell. He wasn't with there when Mal rescued us," Conner said.

"We're doing a check to make sure everyone else is accounted for."

"Well, I just got an update from Agent A a few minutes ago," Tim told them, "and Batgirl isn't able to get out of the house. She's fine, but the Commissioner came home early."

"I'll go update Black Canary and Captain Atom." Barry gestured to Dick. "Keep an eye on him while I'm gone. If he wakes up, try to keep him calm. Hyperventilating won't do his lungs any good."

Both Tim and Conner gave him an affirmative as he walked out of the med bay. The two fell into silence, watching Dick just lie there, and Conner couldn't help but feel a familiar ache of old anger as he did. He pushed it down, though. Now wasn't the time to get angry. There wasn't anything he could do for it now.

"This is so messed up," Conner said.

Tim winced, and whispered, "A little."

* * *

It was past midnight by the time Dick was coherent enough to stay awake. Once Conner had left for a bathroom break, Tim had given up all hopes of sitting by Dick's bedside, and had instead, crawled up next to his brother, curling up next to him. He was careful not to disturb any of the medical equipment monitoring Dick, but he was too tired of watching his brother's pale face.

And then Dick groaned.

It had happened a couple of times in the past two hours, so Tim didn't really get his hopes up, but he pushed himself into a sitting position, still on Dick's bed, and waited with bated breath.

Dick's mask was off now, something Tim made sure of as soon as he was reassured that Dick wasn't going to die then and there, so Tim watched as Dick's face scrunched up, his eyes squeezing tight.

"Dick?" Tim murmured, gently placing a hand on his forehead. "Can you hear me?"

The mask was still strapped over Dick's face, so Dick's words, even though they sounded like gibberish anyways, came out muffled, but a few seconds later, bright blue eyes were opening to look up at Tim, and Tim let out a breath of relief. He sent Dick a shaky smile.

"How're you feeling?" Tim tried again.

Dick reached up and tugged at the mask, pulling it away from his face only after a few tries. "Timmy," Dick rasped. "Where'm I?"

"The Watchtower. Conner brought you here after Mount Justice exploded. Do you remember what happened?"

Dick's face crumpled and he reached for Tim's face. Tim let him cup a hand over his face and run a gentle thumb across his cheek. Dick looked so distressed that Tim had no doubt that he remembered _exactly_ what had happened and hadn't figured out how to process it just yet. His concussion probably wasn't helping much.

"He took them," Dick whispered, and Tim covered Dick's hand with his own. "He took them, and I dunno why. Why did he take them?"

"Aqualad?" Tim prompted. "Did Aqualad take Beast Boy?"

Silent tears were falling from Dick's face. "I don't get it. Why did he have to take them?"

"Dick," Tim urged, bringing Dick's wandering attention back to him. "Dick, I need to know what happened. Who took them?"

Tim didn't know who "them" was, but he was smart enough to guess. And he was smart enough to realize who was behind this entire attack in the first place. But he needed a confirmation, even if it was from a concussed Nightwing who barely had an inkling of what was happening around him.

Dick swallowed dryly. "Aqualad. It was Aqualad. An' the Terror Twins. An' Junior. An' Tigress. They had a bomb. And they took us all down with barely a fight. We weren't ready. An' I don' think we were s'pposed to be."

"Tigress" was a new name. That wasn't one Tim had heard before, and it wasn't in the Batcomputer, so either the name was new or the person behind the name was new. Neither boded well. The last part didn't make a lot of sense, either, but Tim filed away the information for later, when Dick wasn't concussed and he could actually get some semblance of organized information from him.

"Who did Aqualad take, Dick?"

"Blue, Impulse, an' Beast Boy," Dick listed, his eyes drooping. "They didn' need us, though. They needed those three, but they didn' need us. What were they tryin' to do?"

Tim felt dread settle in his stomach. So, it wasn't just Gar that was missing. Blue Beetle and Impulse had been at the Mountain, too. At least Wonder Girl and Red Arrow weren't part of that list, even if the two were still unaccounted for.

Tim ran his fingers through Dick's hair, hushing the older teen when he tried to say something else. "Go back to sleep, Dick. I'll wake you up in an hour to check on your concussion, and we can talk some more then, okay?"

Dick finally settled down after a few more moments, but he was still crying, even after he closed his eyes. Eventually, he drifted off and the tears stopped, but it didn't change the fact that it was probably one of the scariest things Tim had face in his life. Dick was supposed to be this unshakable mountain that stood before him, and to see him practically in pieces along with Mount Justice was a lot harder than Tim had expected.

What had happened tonight had shaken them all to the core. It was a blow straight to the heart. It worked so _well._ They hadn't seen it coming. Even _Dick_ hadn't seen it coming, and Tim knew from experience that Dick prepared for the worst.

Which meant that this had been even worse than the worst. And what that said about their odds, Tim didn't even want to know.

So, instead of dwelling on it, Tim stayed on his brother's bed, held his brother's hand, and didn't think about what tomorrow would bring.


End file.
